13 December 2015•Update: 15 December 2015
DAMASCUS, Syria
Fifty civilians were killed and another 200 injured on Sunday in airstrikes reportedly carried out by Russian warplanes on the opposition-held Douma district in eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus.
According to local civil defense sources, Russian warplanes carried out 25 airstrikes on residential areas in the Douma district.
The same sources said the airstrikes, which began Sunday morning, had targeted several opposition-held neighborhoods, including Zamalka, Jobar, Hamuriye and Arbin.
A number of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed by the strikes, the sources said.
"The injured were taken to nearby hospitals in eastern Ghouta, which are now teeming with wounded. Our teams are still trying to rescue people trapped under the rubble," one local source said.
Yusuf al-Boustani, a member of a local coordination committee, confirmed the death toll.
"Regime warplanes don’t usually carry out airstrikes in inclement weather," he said.
"But today’s intense airstrikes came despite cloudy weather, meaning the attacks were carried out by Russian warplanes," he added.
Syria’s local coordination committees, which consist of local activists opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, frequently publish news via social-media websites.
At least 250,000 people have been killed since the Syria conflict began in 2011, according to UN figures.
